


Snowblind

by PsychoMantis



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Blizzards & Snowstorms, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Injury, M/M, Medical Conditions, Mild Blood, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Snow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-02-13
Packaged: 2018-03-12 04:46:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3344126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PsychoMantis/pseuds/PsychoMantis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sebastian and Joseph get caught out in the snow, and maybe Sebastian isn't as careful as he could be. </p><p>Joseph suffers the brunt of the damage as the two go for a nice long hike in an emergency-conditions blizzard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snowblind

**Author's Note:**

> (Warnings For: Hypothermia, Medical Emergencies, Blood Mentions, Mild Injury)

_  
_

_“-and folks out in about a 50-mile radius of Krimson City are advised to be cautious, return to their homes and avoid the roads if at all possible. The governor has announced a state of emergency as of 7 PM tonight, with snowfall expected to accumulate to over two feet, and wind-chill temperatures anywhere between 8 and 0 degrees Fahrenheit-“_  the radio crackled into silence as Sebastian turned the knob.   


“That was probably important to know?” Joseph said with a scowl. “When they said 7 PM, they meant 7 PM tonight. As in the current day.”  


“And?” Sebastian said around the cigarette in his mouth.  


“And it’s 5, which means we only have two hours before-“  


“Joseph, you know damn well the news gets its panties twisted up and declares the apocalypse at the first thought of snow every goddamn year. We’ll be fine.”  


“Still…”  


“Besides,” Sebastian said with a dismissive hand wave, “we’ve been hunting this guy down for fuckin’ weeks. He’s the only one who knows right now where our suspect might be, God knows how long it would take to get another meeting with him. Or worse, imagine he gets spooked and goes underground, or some shit.”

Joseph looked away and shrugged. “I guess. I just…don’t want to be caught in the middle of this nasty weather they’re predicting. Especially not out here.”          
They had been driving for over forty minutes and hadn’t seen so much as an inkling of civilization. All there was to see were trees- huge, towering trees that looked like they stretched on for miles out. Joseph had only ever lived in cities, large cities, and he found himself uneasy this far out into the wilderness. He felt like they were cut off and isolated.

“Yeah, well, if the scenery were any indication, I’d guess Mr. DeRosa doesn’t exactly thrive on human contact,” Sebastian said, glancing over to Joseph. “Can’t imagine he’d be crazy about going through the bullshit of setting this up a second time.”  


Joseph didn’t exactly look mollified.  


“Listen, we’ll be fine. Even if the storm starts up at 7, it’s not like it’s just going to dump two feet of snow down all at once.”  


“Well,” Joseph sighed, “we _have_ been chasing this case nowhere for a few weeks.”  


“Exactly,” Sebastian said, “I’ll take any steps possible for us to get at this bastard. If that means a snowy trip to see an antisocial old coot on a mountainside, well, so be it.”  


—  


The conversation with Mr. DeRosa was unbelievably tedious for them. The silver lining was, it had yielded the detectives an absolute wealth of information- the enigmatic old man was unusually well-acquainted with the suspect’s habits and loved-ones- and Joseph could barely keep up with all the valuable leads it provided.   


Every statement had to be practically dragged out of him, though, and he was cagey and mistrustful to the very last sentence. The snow was falling in fluffy-looking flakes by the time they had finally tried the man’s patience and been forcefully encouraged to leave, and there was a healthy dusting of snow on the ground.  


Joseph eyed the powdered road warily. Sebastian rolled his eyes at him.  


“It’ll be fine, Joseph. I’ll go slowly.”  


Joseph got into the passenger’s seat silently and made a deliberate show of buckling his seat-belt.  


“Yeah, yeah, I get the message,” Sebastian grumbled.  


The drive back was uneventful for about 15 minutes, which was just long enough to lull the both of them into a false sense of security. The snow came down harder, obscuring their vision a few feet ahead and blanketing the windshield just as fast as it could be wiped off. The wind picked up, pushing viciously at the car from all sides and making their progress treacherous, even though they couldn’t have been moving faster than 20mph.   


“Sebastian, maybe we should stop the car and wait this out,” Joseph said, trying to mask the edge of nervousness in his voice. His hands were fisted in his lap and he stared straight ahead, wide-eyed and unblinking.  


Sebastian glanced over to Joseph. “Well, honestly I’d be more worried about getting stuck out here. We have no idea how long this is going to last, after all. Maybe it’s best to keep moving for now.”  


Joseph nodded. “Okay…okay, then. Guess we’ll keep going.”  


“Being as careful as I can, Joseph.”  


“I didn’t say anything.”  


“You were thinking it.”  


Joseph flashed him a tight smile. “Well, yes, but still. I didn’t say anything, so you don’t get to call me a nag.”  


—  


Half an hour in and they hadn’t made significant progress down the shoddy forest roads. The snow had piled up unbelievably quickly and Sebastian found himself white-knuckled on the steering wheel as the wind buffeted the car and tossed loose snow in all directions.  


He didn’t think it prudent to mention to Joseph how poor the tires’ traction felt in the accumulating snow, how it felt like he had to wrestle the steering wheel just to keep the car steady. Something told him Joseph didn’t really need anything adding to his obvious anxiety.  


Honestly, Sebastian was feeling a little on-edge too. Since when did the weather happen on time, anyway? All he could do was keep his attention sharp and try to get them back to the city safely.  


—  


Getting anywhere safely was easier said than done, as it turned out. Before he had a chance to wrest control of the vehicle, or even shout a warning to Joseph, he felt the rear of the car fishtail out on a slippery patch.   


He tried to strong-arm the car back into position, which made the tires spin-out briefly and charge off the pavement, forward into the woods; he tried to apply the brakes, turn into the spin, but the car just crashed forward on the icy ground with a squeal.  


“Christ, Sebastian-!”  


Everything was a blur and then there was a loud bang and a series of metallic crunching sounds. When the world finally stopped spinning, Sebastian lifted his head from where he’d knocked it painfully against the steering wheel. He tried to see what had happened, but could only see thick grey smoke pouring from the car’s hood, obscuring his view. He heard a groan from the passenger’s side.  


“Shit! Joseph, you okay?”  


He looked over and saw the window spider-webbed with deep cracks, Joseph’s head planted against it. There was a bloom of red in the glass cracking where Joseph leaned against it. Sebastian quickly undid his seat-belt and lunged forward to pull Joseph back.  


“Joseph!”  


Joseph turned to him, squinting with pain or possibly just from the fact that his glasses had been knocked off. His forehead and the bridge of his nose were scraped and cut where he’d been slammed against the window.  


“Sebastian? The car is it-“  


“Fuck the car for a sec. Are you okay?” Sebastian said, slowly and deliberate.   


Joseph nodded and searched around him. Sebastian grabbed his glasses from where they’d landed on the console and handed them over.  


“So. The car?” Joseph said.   


Sebastian turned the key in the ignition and listened to the car choke and sputter as the engine failed to turn over. Eventually the sound wheezed into a low whine.  


“Fuck,” Sebastian hissed.  


He tried again, to the same effect. He heard Joseph take a deep breath in.  


When Joseph spoke, it sounded more to himself than anyone else. “Well, what do we do now?”  


“Gonna see if I can figure out what’s wrong. Stay put.”  


Sebastian got out of the car and surveyed the damage. It was bad- the front was crumpled against a tree, spewing white and grey smoke. He crouched down to see the undercarriage – all he could make out in the dim evening light was the torrent of liquid steaming and dripping down through the snow.   


“Oh god.”   


Sebastian swung back into the driver’s seat and thumped his head against the steering wheel. Joseph jumped when the horn went off.  


“Jesus! Stop that,” Joseph said, shoving Sebastian off the wheel. “How bad is it?”  


“Completely fucked.”  


“Ah.”  


Sebastian tried in vain to get the engine to turn over again. They sat in tense silence, listening to the howl of the wind as it whipped up snow in spirals and whorls.  


“Wish we’d brought a squad car out or something, then we could radio the station for help,” Joseph said. “Do you have any service on your phone?”  


They both pulled out their cell phones.   


Sebastian dropped his in disgust. “Nothing. Not even emergency calls can go out, I just tried.”  


“Same.”  


“Okay so,” Sebastian said, scrubbing at his face, “what are our options here?”  


“The way it looks, we can wait it out here, or…walk back to DeRosa’s house, I guess. The problems being, we don’t know how long we’d end up stuck in a dead, un-heated car, and I’m not exactly clear on how to get back to DeRosa’s…” Joseph trailed off, worrying his lip between his teeth.  


“So, our options suck.”  


“Basically.”  


Sebastian sighed. “Well, I vote we walk. I can’t stand the idea of just sitting here and freezing in this icebox; at least we might keep a little warmer moving. Hopefully we’re not too far from DeRosa’s, and we could use his phone there.”  


Joseph frowned and looked out the window where snow was piling against the window. A chill had already begun to creep into the car.  


“We really aren’t dressed or prepared for this kind of weather, Sebastian.”  


“Only one of our options has the possibility of ending up somewhere warmer than we started.”  


Joseph’s shoulders slumped. “Okay…I guess you’re right. We can’t be that far away, right?”  


Sebastian attempted a reassuring smile. Joseph might have appreciated the effort, but it did little to alleviate the misery of their situation as they both left the car and started the difficult walk back along the road their car had wildly descended.  


The trees loomed menacingly around them in the fading light, casting jagged shadows on the fresh snow. It had the effect of an endless, stretching woodland prison, caging him in, and Joseph jogged ahead to catch up to his partner when he lagged behind.   


The ground was slippery and unsteady beneath his feet; of course he’d be caught in a snowstorm in the least practical work clothes possible. Joseph pulled his coat tighter against him, trying to hide his face in the collar and protect his nose and mouth from the freezing winds. All he got in return were fogged up glasses.  


Sebastian glanced behind and waited for Joseph to catch up. _How the hell does he just charge ahead like there’s nothing to worry about_ , Joseph thought. Sebastian’s shoulders were hunched in his trench coat and his breath came out in long puffs of white cloud.  


“Hey, c’mon,” Sebastian said. He tossed his head and turned back to hike his way along the road.   


Joseph shivered as a fresh gust of wind tore through him as though his clothes weren’t even there, dragging icy nails along his exposed skin. They had been walking for what his phone said was 15 minutes and the wind was leeching the heat from every part of him, insulation be damned. He couldn’t feel his fingertips or his nose, and it felt like even the little trickles of blood along his forehead had frozen.  


“Sebastian, I really hope you have some idea where you’re going,” Joseph said, irritation in his voice lost to the shaking chatter of his teeth.  


Sebastian looked back to him and frowned. “Get over here and try to keep up with me.”  


Joseph hurried forward and Sebastian pressed close to him, shoulder-to-shoulder, though he kept his hands buried in his pockets.  


“Body heat,” Sebastian explained to the silence.  


Joseph shivered against him, more warmed by the gesture than any actual shared heat.  


—  


When 30 minutes had passed, Joseph was quickly losing faith that they were going to find any sort of habitation, much less DeRosa’s.   


“I’m starting to think we might be lost, Sebastian.”  


“We’re not lost; we’re still following the road.”  


Joseph stared down at the ground, where the road should have been. There was a uniform layer of snow over everything, making distinction impossible.  


“Sebastian- how do we even know where the road _is_?” Joseph hadn’t meant for his panic to leak into his voice, but it still cracked a little at the end of the statement.  


Sebastian looked down and grimaced. “Shit.”  


“Maybe we should turn around.”  


“A few more minutes,” Sebastian said and shook his head, “if we don’t see anything, lights or whatever, we’ll try to turn back.”  


Neither of them wanted to state the obvious and worry the other: turning around while they were already lost would only get them more lost. Instead, they just set forward, squinting against the sheet of falling snow for any sign of humanity.   


Joseph’s breath came out in shuddering sighs- the cold was making it hard for him to breathe properly. His chest felt tight and plagued with sharp pains on every inhale. He closed his eyes for a moment and imagined tendrils of ice creeping through the capillaries of his lungs, shutting out the oxygen.  


“Joseph?”  


When he opened his eyes, Sebastian was looking at him strangely.  


Joseph smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, spaced out there for a bit. Were you saying something?”  


Sebastian shook his head, but the expression didn’t fade. “Just making sure you’re holding up okay.”  


Joseph nodded and kept on. Sebastian slowed and stayed close to him as they slogged onward.  


“Joseph, you seeing that?” Sebastian said, nodding into the distance.   


There was a vague outline in the distance, made shadowy by the snow whipping past. It looked almost like…  


“Is that a house?” Joseph said.  


“Obviously not DeRosa’s, but,” Sebastian said, darting forward, “it’s something.”  


Joseph stumbled after him and lost his footing in the snow. He fell forward and scraped the heels of his palms as he braced his head against the dull pain of knocking against the ground. Before he could make sense of what had happened, Sebastian was there, hauling him up by his jacket.  


“Up you go,” Sebastian said, and what little Joseph could see of his face as the world continued to spin was twisted in concern.  


The outline of the house became clearer as they approached. It proved to be more of a small cabin than a proper house, with creaking wooden board walls and cobwebbed windows. They dragged themselves to the doorway and knocked, tentatively at first and then aggressively.  


Joseph leaned up on tiptoe and tried to stare through the nearest window. “Do you think anyone lives here? It looks…”  


“Abandoned? Yeah. I wonder…”  


Sebastian tried the doorknob, which clicked uselessly. Then there was a terrible, thundering crash as Sebastian violently kicked against the door.  


“Jesus, Seb! Suppose someone does live here?”  


“Then they call the cops and it’s still better than being stranded out in this mess,” Sebastian growled. He kicked at the door again and again until with a splintering and a groan, it swung open.  


It was dark inside and had the musty basement smell that suggested abandonment. There was barely any furniture visible from the entrance, just a decrepit looking loveseat and a few broken wood chairs.  


“There’s a fireplace,” Sebastian said in a relieved sigh, “lucky us.”  


“Lucky…not the word I’d use.”  


Joseph pulled the door shut behind him, shivering miserably. At least it felt nice to be out of the biting wind.   


Sebastian ignored him and grabbed one of the wooden chairs, breaking off whatever parts were dry and brittle enough with a grunt. He stacked the wooden scraps in the fireplace and rummaged in his pockets, pulling out a packet of matches and his pack of cigarettes. With a hushed noise, he lit the match and held it to a cigarette before tossing the match into the fireplace.  


The dry wood caught fire with a loud _whoosh_.   


Sebastian looked up at Joseph and knit his brow. “What are you doing? Get over here, you need to get warm.”  


Joseph looked behind him- had he really just been standing there, staring at a source of heat while he shuddered and lost the sensation in his limbs? His head felt…cloudy, made it hard to think. Everything was just so cold…  


Sebastian straightened up and pulled Joseph over to the fire that was growing steadily in the hearth. He kicked apart the rest of the chair and fed it into the fire, clapping dust off his hands and surveying the room.   


“Sit down and take off whatever’s soaked on you, like your coat for starters,” Sebastian said, “I’m gonna go take a look around this place, see if there’s anything useful. At least this fuckin’ phone is good for light…”  


With that, Sebastian disappeared into the next room, just a faint light swinging back and forth. Joseph stayed crouched in front of the fire, skin almost stinging from the welcome heat. He couldn’t focus on anything except how warm the fire was and how heavy his limbs felt.   


He didn’t know how long it had been when Sebastian came back, flapping the dust off a moth-eaten old blanket.  


“Well, it’s not much but it’s- Joseph?”  


Joseph blinked slowly and swung his head towards Sebastian as though it were an afterthought. Sebastian looked spooked; Joseph was an unhealthy ashy color, smeared with blood; and the way he moved was dreamlike and disconcerting.  


“Joseph, are you alright? Seriously, take off your wet clothes or you’re gonna freeze.”  


Sebastian pulled off his trench coat and shoes, heavy and started to drip with melted snow. Joseph followed suit, laying them out in front of the fire with shaking hands.  


Sebastian draped the old blanket around Joseph and turned to dig around in his pockets. Joseph glared and pulled the blanket from him, offering it back to him.  


“You take it, I’m fine,” Joseph said.  


Sebastian looked him over, absorbed in thought. He dropped to sit next to Joseph, almost uncomfortably close to his personal space, and stubbed out his cigarette on the floor. He scooted even closer so that their sides and thighs were touching and wrapped the blanket around both their shoulders, leaning against Joseph.  


“There. Problem solved.”  


“Wh-what, what are you…” Joseph asked, quiet and confused.   


“Staying warm,” Sebastian said simply, “we share the blanket, we share body heat, and everybody wins.”  


“Oh…okay.”  


The exposed parts of Joseph’s skin felt impossibly chilled against Sebastian’s arm, though he supposed he must feel just as cold. Even with the fire going and the blanket, it felt like he might never feel warm again; like fingers of cold seizing him all over and making his muscles ache with the strain.  


Sebastian fished something out of his pocket and pressed it into Joseph’s hand. It was a protein bar; specifically one of the protein bars Joseph was constantly forcing on him whenever he thought Sebastian might not have eaten, which was often.   


Joseph lifted the bar up and fixed Sebastian with an unfocused stare. “Why are you giving me this?”  


Sebastian looked blank for a moment, which melted into concern. “’Cause I want you to eat something. I think your…blood sugar is low, or something.”  


Joseph dropped the protein bar in Sebastian’s lap. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”  


“Well, eat some anyway, as a personal fucking favor,” Sebastian growled.  


He snapped the bar in half and wrapped Joseph’s cold hand around it. Joseph sighed and took a bite as though he were resigning himself to something unpleasant. Sebastian hooked his arm around his partner’s shoulders and rubbed his arm in a gesture that might have been quiet support, or the result of Sebastian losing the feeling in his fingertips.   


Joseph was shivering violently against him, so hard and unfailingly that Sebastian worried that it must hurt.  


“Hey, Seb?” Joseph’s voice was quiet and not as articulated as Sebastian was used to. He stared until Joseph continued.  


“M’sorry…about this,” Joseph said, letting his head drop onto Sebastian’s shoulder, “I can’t…I haven’t been very good about all this.” He gestured absently around the room.  


Sebastian narrowed his eyes; Joseph was fairly reticent about his feelings and a hell of a lot shyer about any form of physical contact.   


“What are you talking about, Joseph?”  


“I mean, about, panicking over the snow and not…being very helpful, or…”  


“It’s fine,” Sebastian said tersely, “you’re doing fine. I should-“ Sebastian ran his hands through his hair angrily. “I should be the one saying sorry. This is all my goddamn fault, and here you are just about freezing to death because I didn’t listen and I just had to-“  


Joseph laid his hand on Sebastian’s knee and squeezed reassuringly, hand jittering through the slow movement. Sebastian smiled sadly through his mounting concern.  


“How you feeling, Jo?”  


Joseph slumped against him with a shallow sigh. “I’m just…I’m just really cold.”  


“Hold still,” Sebastian said.   


He moved behind Joseph so that he could wrap his arm around his torso and pulled him down so that Joseph lay on his side, facing the fireplace with Sebastian hugging tight against his back. He adjusted the blanket with his free hand so that it covered as much of the both of them as possible.  


“I, uh…sorry if this is, well, a little uncomfortable,” Sebastian said quietly, “but it’s as warm as we’re going to get, and I really think you could use some rest before we figure out what to do next.”  


It was by and large a lot warmer than they had been before; Sebastian buried his face against the nape of Joseph’s neck to get some warmth back in the tip of his nose.  


Joseph caught himself wishing that the whole situation was taking place under different circumstances. He couldn’t deny to himself that this was something he’d wanted- something he’d barely let himself dare to think about except for very late at night, or very drunk, and now it was something of a reality. A reality prompted by desperation and sheer survival.  


It would have been funny if the thought didn’t make Joseph feel so sad. Then again, maybe he wasn’t actually feeling sad; maybe that was just the strange, dreamlike pull of exhaustion weighing his throbbing mind down as his shivering subsided into unconsciousness.  


He let himself be pulled downward, feeling cold down to his bones and strangely peaceful about it, into the heavy comfort of sleep.   


—  


Sebastian woke some time later, still holding on to Joseph. He cursed himself quietly; he wasn’t supposed to have fallen asleep, he was supposed to keep the fire going and keep an eye on Joseph. He got up and tucked the blanket around Joseph before looking the fireplace over. It wasn’t out completely, but the flames had shrunk to a soft flicker.  


According to his phone he hadn’t been out that long, maybe 40 minutes. Sebastian looked out one of the rattling windows and, though he couldn’t see very well into the inky darkness of the woods, it seemed as though the snowstorm had calmed. At least there wasn’t a frenzied sheet of fat snowflakes everywhere.   


He grabbed another of the wooden chairs and tried to break some chunks off if it as quietly as possible. Despite his efforts, the wood made loud cracking and splitting noises as he pried it apart.  


The sounds didn’t seem to disturb Joseph. Sebastian tossed the chunks of wood into the fire, not looking away from his sleeping partner. Joseph’s skin hadn’t lost the unnerving pallor from before and it seemed as though his breathing was too slow.  


Sebastian touched Joseph’s neck softly and felt a pang of worry at how unnaturally cool his skin felt. He pressed his fingers against his neck more insistently and tried to time his pulse. He was too nervous to keep an accurate count, but he was confident that it was not as many beats-per-minute as it should be; it was much too slow. He shook Joseph gently, trying to wake him.  


He did wake up, to Sebastian’s brief moment of relief. Joseph sat up, turning his head about with excruciating slowness as he surveyed the surroundings. Eventually he landed on Sebastian, mouth open slightly and eyes bleary above his crooked glasses.  


“Where…?” Joseph trailed off as though he’d forgotten the rest of the question.  


“Cabin, the woods, blizzard- do you remember any of this?” Sebastian asked. Joseph’s expression tightened in confusion and he shook his head slowly.  


He watched as Joseph tried to stand and stumbled; he didn’t put his hands out in time to spare himself from planting directly on his face. The scene would have been comical if it didn’t cement in Sebastian’s mind that something was very wrong.   


Sebastian guided Joseph to sit back down closer to the fire, watching as his hands and arms shook while he found purchase on the ground and re-wrapped Joseph in the blanket.   


Sebastian was breathing hard now, trying to keep calm while he watched Joseph’s body go limp, expression empty. It was deeply unsettling to see his partner, always so sharp and attentive, look as though he’d overdosed on muscle relaxers.  


“Joseph? You still here with me?”  


Joseph’s eyes were heavy-lidded as he stared at Sebastian, as though he didn’t really believe the man was there in front of him. Sebastian reached out and cupped his cheek, trying to get him to focus, startle, pay attention, anything, but Joseph just leaned anemically into the meager source of warmth.  


“Fuck,” Sebastian said, and fumbled his phone out of his pocket.  


_Please let there be a signal, let there be something_ , he thought.  


There was a single bar of service on-screen. Sebastian thought he might have started praying if there was anything he believed in, and punched the call button. Whatever the last number was was almost guaranteed to be the KCPD or Kidman.  


“Detective Kidman speaking.”  


“Kid, thank Christ-“  


“Sebastian? Weren’t you and Joseph supposed to check in-“  


“Never mind that, I need your help! The car is fucked and I need paramedics out here, an ambulance, something; Joseph’s-“  


“Well, where are you?”  


“An empty house somewhere near the guy we were questioning. I’m not too clear on exactly where that is.”  


There was silence on the other end and it sounded as though Kidman had put the phone down and walked away. Seconds ticked by into minutes as Sebastian waited, staring nervously where Joseph sat and stared vacantly. Eventually there was a click and rustle as she picked the phone back up.  


“Dispatched an emergency response team to your location, hang tight,” Kidman said, her tone almost conversational. For some reason that irritated Sebastian.  


“How will they even know what my location is? I don’t even know!” Sebastian snapped.  


“I traced your cell signal and got the coordinates. What happened anyway?”  


“How did you-“  


“Do you want the paramedics or not? Now tell me what happened and what’s wrong with Joseph.” Despite Kidman’s insistence, she didn’t sound as though she felt anything more urgent than mild curiosity at their predicament.  


“I, uh…god, the car crashed, we tried to hike back to DeRosa’s in the storm, think we got lost. Found one of those stupid little summer cabins, started a fire, but then I fuckin’, I fell asleep, and now he’s barely responding to me, he feels cold, his breathing’s all wrong. He’d been a little spacey before, but now he can’t even look me in the eye or respond to his name,” Sebastian said, the words coming out in a breathless stream.   


“Hypothermia, then. Is he currently somewhere warm?”  


“It’s a shack in the middle of a blizzard, nowhere is warm!”  


“Relatively warm? You said you started a fire; there, for example.”  


“Wh-yeah, of course!”  


“Okay, listen up. Stay close to him until the medics arrive. Don’t let him wander off and don’t let him take any clothing off. Most importantly, don’t move him, at all if you can avoid it, and do it slowly if you have to,” Kidman said.  


“Why would he take his clothes off?”  


“Sometimes hypothermia victims do that. Well, good luck. The medics’ ETA is 45 minutes. Goodbye, Sebastian.”  


The line clicked into silence, leaving Sebastian staring ruefully at his phone. He tucked it into his pocket and stepped over to where Joseph was sitting, head and arms limp like a ragdoll. He was still awake though, breathing shallowly and lit eerily by the firelight.   


“Joseph.”  


Unsurprisingly, he didn’t respond. Sebastian dropped to the ground beside him, splaying his legs and pulling Joseph awkwardly into his lap, making sure to keep the blanket around him. He wrapped his arms around him and rested Joseph’s head against his neck, trying to rub some life back into Joseph’s arms.   


Joseph reached up, arm jittering like a broken robot, eventually landing to rest on Sebastian’s chest (after missing the mark several times).  


“Don’t worry, buddy,” Sebastian said, “I’m not letting you die. Especially not some fucking ridiculous way like this.”  


Sebastian took a deep, shuddering breath. He sincerely doubted that Joseph was the one doing any worrying.  


“Remind me to apologize properly for this whole mess when you’re coherent again.”  


Joseph rubbed his cheek against Sebastian’s neck, glancing up.  


“Seb…what’re you doing here?” Joseph said, speech badly slurred.  


“Just, uh…just hangin’ out,” Sebastian said. _Well, that came out stupid_. Still, he wasn’t exactly clear on how to hold a conversation with someone only just barely conscious.  


“You always…this close?” Joseph’s words were almost completely incomprehensible this time.   


“This close…? Oh.” Sebastian felt his face warm with embarrassment as the implication sank in. _You don’t have to feel weird. You’re literally trying to keep him alive right now,_ Sebastian told himself.  


“I mean, uh, no, not usually.” He hugged Joseph a little tighter, rubbing the heel of his palm between his shoulders.   


“Oh,” Joseph mumbled, and if he weren’t in the process of going comatose from the cold, Sebastian would have sworn he sounded a little disappointed.  


“Although, if by any chance you remember a scrap of this when it’s all over…I guess I wouldn’t, ah, wouldn’t be opposed to the idea. Or anything.” _Good, good job Sebastian_ , he thought. _Survival situations are a great time to start making awkward confessions you have no business making. Idiot._  


The cold and fear for Joseph’s safety was ruining his usual stoic defenses. Sebastian buried his face against Joseph’s hair, breath warm against Joseph’s skin. He was grateful that there was a small chance he’d remember anything.   


“Hell, I’ll fucking marry you tomorrow if you just promise you won’t die right now,” Sebastian said. He laughed miserably to himself.  


Joseph didn’t respond, just breathed against him, fingers twitching where they rested on Joseph’s chest. Sebastian pet Joseph’s hair as though her were a small dog, doing it more for his own reassurance than any body heat it would provide. 

—  


They stayed huddled up close like that for a long time. It took Sebastian a few seconds to recognize the lights, flashing familiar red and blue through the filthy windows when they came. He dragged Joseph upward, trying to keep the movement slow like Kidman had said, and propped him up on his shoulder, clutching him close.   


The door slammed open and two paramedics swarmed in alongside a police officer, pushing a gurney in front of them.  


“Detective Castellanos?” the officer said.  


“Yeah, yeah, that’s me,” Sebastian huffed, bracing Joseph as he stumbled, “and Detective Oda, too.”  


“KCPD sent us. You said there was a medical emergency?” the officer said, staring curiously at Joseph’s obviously poor condition.  


Sebastian gestured to Joseph helplessly with his head. The paramedics nodded and took Joseph from under Sebastian’s arm, lifting him onto the gurney with slow, deliberate movements. Sebastian flexed his hands into fists as he watched them lay Joseph on the gurney, fixing his torso with a variety of straps.  


“So, do you want to tell me what happened here?”  


Sebastian didn’t mask the irritation in his face at the officer’s question. He delivered a truncated version of the story, distracted and watching the paramedics wheel Joseph out the whole time.   


“Where are they taking him?” Sebastian asked. He might’ve interrupted the officer; he didn’t exactly care. He was welling up with panic at the idea that Joseph was now out of his sight.  


The officer fixed him with a look that suggested he thought Sebastian was out of his mind. “They’re taking him to the ambulance, detective. They’ll need to get his body temperature stable and check his organ function at the hospital. Now, if you’ll come with me…”  


“Like hell I will,” Sebastian said. He grabbed his jacket and shoved past the man.   


“Detective Castellanos, I must insist-“the officer tried to grab hold of Sebastian’s coat, but was knocked back as he twisted away angrily.  


Sebastian stormed out the door and jumped into the back of the open ambulance, watching with a pang of regret in his chest as they strapped his limbs down and fixed the oxygen mask over Joseph’s face.   


The paramedics barely spared him a glance upward, sharing a look of confusion before returning to cutting open Joseph’s shirt. They attached a series of electrodes and the heart monitored flared to life and beeped rhythmically.  


“Well, looks like this guy’s along for the ride. Close the doors and get the heat cranked up in here,” one of the men said, furrowing his brow at Sebastian.  


“I’m his partner. I trust it’s alright for me to come along?” Sebastian said.   


One of the men went to shut the doors, shrugging emphatically at Sebastian. “Don’t suppose you’d take “no” lightly from how you stormed in. Just stay quiet and out of the way.”  


Sebastian smirked, catching a glimpse of the officer speaking angrily into his radio. He watched as the other paramedic draped a few large heat packs along Joseph’s body before squinting at the monitor and frowning.  


“Well, looks like he’s bradychardic. Should we start an IV?”  


“I think it can wait ‘til he gets to the hospital,” the other paramedic said, draping Joseph with a series of thick blankets, “best to give him warmed IV fluids anyway.”  


Sebastian fidgeted with his hands off to Joseph’s side, as out of the way as he could manage. All he could do was hover and worry, feeling useless while the paramedics worked. _God, but he could use something to drink…_  


He’d stopped shivering as the temperature in the vehicle warmed steadily. One of the paramedics approached him warily.   


“Sir? As long as you’re here, I’m going to have to check your temperature,” the man said.   


Sebastian rolled his eyes and nodded. “If you insist.”  


The man gestured to Sebastian’s mouth with the infrared thermometer and Sebastian opened up obediently. There was a flash of red as he took his temperature.  


“Huh, 93 degrees. Mild hypothermia too, guess that makes sense. You’ll have to get checked out at the hospital as well.”  


Sebastian shrugged; he knew better than to put up a fight now, even if he had no intention of leaving Joseph’s side.  


He gestured to Joseph as the paramedic draped a blanket around Sebastian’s shoulders. “So, is he…is he gonna be okay?”  


“Your partner there? Oh, sure, he should be fine. Barring massive organ failure, he’s stabilizing nicely and doesn’t seem too far gone. I’m sure he’ll be okay. Oh, and here,” the paramedic said. He handed Sebastian Joseph’s glasses.  


Sebastian put the glasses in his pocket, sighed and buried his head in his hands, left waiting as the ambulance rattled along slowly on its way to the hospital.  


—  


The hospital was a nightmare.  


After a spirited (and ugly) shouting match with the doctor who would be seeing to Joseph, Sebastian had been “gently” escorted away by a pair of burly orderlies. They left Sebastian sitting in an exam room, cursing himself, and the doctors, and the orderlies.   


They’d hooked him up to an IV and a heart monitor, spouting some nonsense about how he was technically in danger of having a hypothermia-induced heart attack and needed to be watched. Sebastian had never hated a “no smoking” policy more in his life. At this point he’d gladly have endangered the lives of every patient on that floor just for a taste of nicotine.   


It took two hours for his body temperature to remain normal long enough to satisfy the doctor, and an hour more before the blood tests came back confirming that his liver and kidneys were still working (though the doctor had some choice words regarding the state of his liver). Stone-faced and ready to burn the whole building down, Sebastian checked himself out and went to the front desk to find out what room Joseph was in.   


Sebastian stalked down the halls, trying to not be noticed. He ducked into Room D304 when he was certain no one could see; he hadn’t been told not to go into the room, but he hadn’t asked if it were alright, either. He figured it was best to just keep his presence to himself and avoid any administrative complications. Rolling his sore shoulder was the only reminder he needed to keep those damn orderlies away from him.   


The room was dimly lit, haloing Joseph’s pale face in the gentle yellow of the overhead. Just being there made Sebastian feel tired, like his body was weighed down by his anxiety and guilt.   


He was grateful that Joseph was in the room alone and fell heavily into the chair by his bed. He reached out and put his hand over Joseph’s limp one.  


“God. What a fucking mess,” Sebastian said quietly.  


“Seriously,” a voice croaked from the bed.  


Sebastian straightened up and snatched his hand back in surprise. “Joseph?”  


Joseph dragged himself to sit upright, wincing with the effort. “Hey, Seb.”  


He was still pale, but without the horrible grey tinge. He did still look as though he’d been awake for several days straight, and the butterfly bandages taping the lacerations on his face shut highlighted the purpling bruises blooming along his cheekbone. Monitor and cable wires stuck out from all over him, the machines beeping and whirring in the background.  


“Joseph, you’re awake!”  


“Kinda wish I wasn’t, but yeah,” Joseph groaned, “you okay?”  


“Am I okay- I’m fine! What are- how’re you feeling? Is everything…?”  


“All my organs are working; at least I think that’s what they said. I had a hard time paying attention,” Joseph said with a weak smile.  


“Jesus, Joseph,” Sebastian said, coughing to cover the way his voice threatened to break, “God, I’m so sorry about this, this was all my fault, I can’t believe I-“  


“Sebastian.”  


“- can’t believe I put you in danger, you could have fucking died, over something so stupid, and I don’t know what I’d do-“  


“Sebastian?”  


“- couldn’t live with myself if I let something happen to you-“  


“Sebastian!”  


Sebastian stopped, mouth hanging open mid-sentence.  


“It’s fine, okay?” Joseph said quietly.  


“It’s not fine, goddammit! If you hadn’t noticed, I got you sent to the hospital.”  


“Okay, well, it wasn’t fine. And maybe we should both be more careful from now on, but it’s all over now, and it’s all okay. Consider your apology accepted.”  


Sebastian stared, unsure how to process Joseph’s apparent lack of indignation. He had every right, as far as Sebastian was concerned, to be mad as hell.   


“Now calm down,” Joseph said, nearing a whisper. He reached out and put his hand on Sebastian’s forearm.   


Sebastian turned his head so that Joseph couldn’t see him blink back the panicked beginnings of tears in his eyes. He was definitely a little over-tired and worn down from hours of worrying.  


“Alright, alright. I’m just…glad you’re okay,” Sebastian muttered, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.   


He put his hand down over Joseph’s where he’d laid it on his arm and squeezed it reassuringly.  


“I confess I’m pretty glad about that, too,” Joseph said. They both chuckled nervously.  


They stayed together for a few hours, struggling through intermittent apologies from Sebastian before Joseph could steer the conversation somewhere safer.   


They talked about their caseload, and whether or not Kidman would end up asking out the girl from the coffee shop, before Joseph started to look as though he might drift off any moment.   


“You want me to go?” Sebastian said. “You look like you could use some rest.”  


“It’s alright,” Joseph said, stifling a yawn, “you can stay if you want, but you don’t have to hang around on my account. No point in hanging around while I sleep.”

"Oh," Sebastian said, "I almost forgot."

He pulled the glasses out of his pocket, pausing to clean them on his shirt, and handed them to Joseph. Joseph looked unaccountably relieved.

"Oh, thank God. Thought I’d left these back there."  


They barely noticed when the door creaked open and a nurse slipped into the room. “Mr. Oda, I see you’re awake, and – excuse me! What are you doing here?”  


“I was just-“  


“You were just leaving,” the nurse said sharply, “visiting hours don’t start for hours yet and I don’t tolerate folks sneaking around my ward unannounced at all hours of the night!”  


“You listen here, I’m not going-“  


“Seb, don’t start,” Joseph said, arching an eyebrow at him.  


“But-“  


“But, it’ll be an even bigger hassle if you get yourself banned from the damned hospital. Besides, if you don’t mind terribly, I’d really appreciate it if you could bring me some clothes, when you get back? If you don’t mind coming back, that is. It looks like the paramedics tore up most of mine.”  


Sebastian’s expression softened and he stood up from the chair.  


“’Course I don’t mind coming back. I’ll…be back later, then, with some clothes for you. Hopefully you’ll be ready to get checked out of this hellhole, too.”  


Sebastian patted Joseph on the shoulder and turned to leave, glaring at the nurse reproachfully.  


He’d made it to the door when he heard Joseph speak up behind him.  


“And Sebastian?”  


Sebastian turned to face him as the nurse fussed with his IV drip.  


“I know I managed to not die and all, but…maybe we could start with dinner? Seems like an awfully big commitment, so soon.” Joseph said. The slight flush to his cheeks was unmistakable against his pallor.   


It took Sebastian a few minutes to puzzle out why Joseph had said that. When he did remember, it hit him in the stomach like a sack of bricks. _Hell, I’ll fucking marry you tomorrow if you just promise to not die right now._ _How had he remembered that_?  


“Hah, remembered that one did you?” Sebastian said with a nervous chuckle.  


Joseph just smirked and tilted his head inquisitively. _Oh, that smug little bastard wasn’t going to win this one_ , Sebastian decided.  


“Well, consider it a date then. I’ll pick you up, say, 8 o’clock Friday?” Sebastian said, and walked out the door before Joseph could answer him.  


He stood with his back to the door, just breathing heavily for a few minutes. _I can’t believe I just said that_ , he thought. _‘Can’t believe I totally meant that._  


Sebastian planted his face against his palms for a bit, taking deep breaths, before he walked down the hall and out the hospital.


End file.
